Ah, the XFCE v LXDE debate
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| arthur4242 Aug 11, 2015 4:09 PM EDT |
I've done some pretty extensive testing on the resource usage of XFCE vs LXDE, and have never found any significant resource usage differences between the two if you are JUST using the base XFCE and base LXDE. Now Xubuntu vs Lubuntu is a different story. Xubuntu adds a lot of things in the background that Lubuntu leaves off. So Lubuntu is definitely lighter than Xubuntu, but in terms of the desktop itself XFCE isn't any heavier than LXDE. I've run a command line only install of Ubuntu with the base XFCE packages on top of a Compaq Presario (256 megs of ram) for many years. Runs like a boss. Now when you start a web browser, that's another story. You're pretty much stuck with Midori. |
| flufferbeer Aug 11, 2015 4:18 PM EDT |
@ arthur4242, >> I've run a command line only install of Ubuntu with the base XFCE packages on top of a Compaq Presario (256 megs of ram) for many years. Runs like a boss. Ah, the old question about what distros and desktops are best for those 32bit x86 PCs w/ 512 megs ram or less (PAE/non-PAE) once Win$ucksXP gets wiped out.... 2c |
| penguinist Aug 11, 2015 4:25 PM EDT |
I've looked at both and ended up leaning a little toward XFCE but LXDE was fine too. One of my big decision points in choosing a desktop is an efficient launch capability. I used to be a Gnome2 user but when the Gnome project abandoned the icon-oriented desktop concept I found that I couldn't work efficiently any longer. After a serious two day attempt to make myself productive in Gnome3 I ended up switching over to XFCE and haven't looked back. What I like to do (this makes me very efficient) is to create custom scripts implementing complete tasks that are often repeated in my daily workflow. Then I'll attach these scripts to a desktop launch icon. With this technique, I can fly through my work in lightning speed. A side benefit of this technique is that my non-guru wife loves using Linux on her desktop and notebook because she finds that the icons I've prepared for her do exactly what she wants them to do (if they don't she asks me to ssh in to her system and make it right). I just wasn't able to get anything close to that productivity with Gnome3 or Unity. I'm not saying that an icon-free desktop might not be right for some people, it just wasn't the solution for me. Isn't it great that we Linux users have such freedom of choice to find and adopt exactly the right desktop for our individual purposes. |
| seatex Aug 11, 2015 4:41 PM EDT |
I personally enjoy working with LXDE, XFCE, MATE, and Cinnamon. I would say I use XFCE the most - it just works and is rock solid. KDE is pretty, but it seems to always be a work-in-progress, with bugs included. Unity and Gnome 3? Not for me. |
| CFWhitman Aug 12, 2015 9:10 AM EDT |
I tend to use Xfce a lot, sometimes through Xubuntu, sometimes not. The only thing that bugs me about it is that if I turn on the built in compositing, video playback tends to tear quite a bit. I work around this by disabling the built in compositor and running Compton instead. Of course, I run some LXDE desktops as well. My netbook has LXLE on it. If I want compositing on LXDE, I tend to use Compton as well (there is no built in compositor). It's funny, but often running a compositor on older hardware will actually make it run faster because it offloads more work to the GPU. Of course, it depends on the hardware. When running a desktop on less than 1 GB of RAM, or especially on less than 768 MB, I find that the Web is a problem even with a relatively light browser because of the pages themselves using up a lot of RAM unless you disable modern Web features. Of course you can run something like Dillo or a command line browser like links2 and these features won't be supported in the browser. To run YouTube on such a machine I find that it is fairly practical to run one of the dedicated apps like smtube. |
| JaseP Aug 12, 2015 5:34 PM EDT |
CFWhitman,... Video playback with a compositor on might depend on your video drivers. Older 'Buntus default to an older set of drivers that might not use the best available video acceleration for the chipset, especially with Intel chipsets. I switched my Kubuntu 12.04 install to use a PPA with more up to date drivers and SNA acceleration. OpenGL is now much faster/better... |
| BernardSwiss Aug 12, 2015 5:41 PM EDT |
@CFWhitman: very interesting (useful) info about using a compositor -- thanks, I'll keep that in mind. |
| BernardSwiss Aug 12, 2015 5:42 PM EDT |
@arthur4242: Any observations on the resource requirements with XFCE on Ubuntu vs XFCE on Mint? This is the sort of info that comes in so handy when advising netbook/atom-cpu laptop owners, who might switch to Linux. |
| Koriel Aug 13, 2015 12:39 AM EDT |
Some useful info for XFCE + Nvidia users. XFCE own compositor works fine with the Nouveau drivers (no tearing, as long as you have vsync checked in XFCE Window manager tweaks) but if you install the Nvidia drivers it will tear badly pretty much regardless of what you do. I use Compton in this usage case which fixes the tearing when Nvidia drivers are used. |
| kikinovak Aug 13, 2015 3:16 AM EDT |
I'm running MLED 14.1 with Nvidia drivers on a twin-monitor workstation. No tearing problems with Xfce's compositor. http://www.microlinux.fr/mled.php |
| CFWhitman Aug 13, 2015 11:52 AM EDT |
I have machines of various configurations as far as video goes, including AMD, Intel, and Nvidia. I've never noticed a correlation between the video tearing and the video chipset regarding the use of Xfce's compositor (I have with other sources of tearing). Of course I haven't gone looking for such a correlation either. I know I have noticed the tearing with full screen video on an AMD card with the open source drivers. I'm fairly confident I've seen it on an old Nvidia card with the closed drivers. I'm not sure about a machine with the Intel drivers. My general impression with Xfce's compositor is that it makes tearing worse than with no compositing, whereas Compton makes it better. However, I would not consider this a hard and fast rule. I would test a setup with the built in compositor first, and only change it out if there is a problem. |
| Koriel Aug 13, 2015 1:15 PM EDT |
The problem is with xwfm4 and xrender and the XFCE folks have acknowledged this, i have 4 Nvidia video cards all exhibit the same tearing behaviour on Linux Mint 17.1/17.2 XFCE.
Granted all my cards are old so this may not be a problem on newer cards, I have 2 NV6800 amd 2 NV7300. All tearing is fixed when using Compton, this is not just a problem that I have suffered see here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2212418 https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=38248 This issue is widely known, and the XFCE folks have pretty much ackowledged that fixing it 100% would mean they would have to re-tool xfwm4 to use opengl backend instead of xrender but they dont have the manpower to do this. It should be noted folks with newer Nvidia cards have a new feature (ForceFullComposition) which fixes the tearing issue but it is not backward compatible with older Nvidia cards so compton is your best bet if like me you cant afford a new card. |
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